Villarrreal Vs Atletico Madrid 2-2: Los Rojiblancos Are Now 16 Points Behind Leaders Real Madrid

Villarreal vs Atletico madrid (Twitter @atleti)

JAKARTA - Atletico Madrid failed to get full points after being held to a 2-2 draw by the host Villarreal in the match week 20 of the Spanish League at El Madridgal Stadium, early Monday morning.

Quoted from Antara, Angel Correa and Geoffrey Kondogbia each scored a goal for Atletico. Meanwhile, two goals for the home team were scored by Pau Torres and Alberto Moreno.

This result lifted Atletico Madrid to fourth in the standings, with 33 points. They are one point behind Real Betis in third place and 16 points behind Real Madrid who are at the top of the table.

⏱ 90' + 3' | Villarreal 2⃣-2⃣ Atleti

Reparto de puntos en Villarreal.

• #AúpaAtleti • #VillarrealAtleti • pic.twitter.com/VkdW0nXvyH

— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) January 9, 2022

Diego Simeone has trusted Angel Correa and Matheus Cunha to partner up the Atletico front line, amid the accumulation of yellow cards for Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann who had to be sidelined due to recurring injuries.

Correa repaid Simeone's trust by opening Atletico's lead with just 10 minutes of play, with his keen eye on goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli's position away from the net and firing from distance after cutting off Dani Parejo's pass.

Villarreal hit back in the 24th minute through Parejo's swift effort to snatch the ball from Gerard Moreno's penalty which was denied by goalkeeper Jan Oblak, but the goal was disallowed after VAR discovered that the aging midfielder had touched the ball with his hand.

Five minutes later the hosts finally really equalized through Pau Torres' close-range flick after Oblak dropped Parejo's free-kick and the score remained 1-1 until the first half ended.

After the break, Villarreal took the lead through Alberto Moreno's flat kick which beat Oblak using a pass from Gerard Moreno in the 58th minute.

But the hosts' lead lasted shorter than Atletico's lead, as Geoffrey Kondogbia scored in the 67th minute to find the ball from Correa's shot which was denied by Rulli.

Both teams tried to find the winning goal in the remaining time of the match, but what happened was Kondogbia was given a second yellow card in the second minute of injury time and the 2-2 score lasted until the final whistle sounded.

Lineup:

Villarreal (4-2-3-1): Geronimo Rulli (GK); Juan Foyth, Raul Albiol, Pau Torres, Pervis Estupinan; Etienne Capoue, Daniel Parejo; Moi Gomez, Manuel Trigueros (Alfonso Pedraza, 74'), Alberto Moreno (Yeremi Pino, 74'); Gerard Moreno.

Atletico Madrid (4-4-2): Jan Oblak (GK); Marcos Llorente, Felipe, Mario Hermoso, Renan Lodi (Sime Vrsaljko, 63'); Yannick Carrasco, Rodrigo De Paul (Joao Felix, 62'), Geoffrey Kondogbia, Thomas Lemar; Angel Correa, Matheus Cunha (Koke, 63').